Monday, March 2, 2015

Today we come to you with saddened hearts. This is our last post at Inspiration Avenue. We four have so many things going on that we have decided to bring Inspiration Avenue to a close. It has been a wonderful ride and we thank each and everyone of you for jumping on with us through out the years and for participating in our weekly challenges as well as these great events.

We love the friendships we have made with you.

If you do not already, jump on our blogs and follow us so we can keep in touch!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Hi everyone. I hope you all survived the holidays and are getting back to normalcy. I'm working up the energy to take down my mermaid Christmas tree. It seems like I have so many things to do and that time to do them keeps shrinking. Of course, I realized that I was signed up to post our weekly challenge, so the mermaids on the tree will remain a little bit longer.

I joined two creative teams for digital art journal/scrapbook designers. That means I get to try their new kits and make pages to show off the designs. It sounds simple, and it sometimes is. But once in awhile, I find myself sitting there pondering what to do. That's when I head over to Google to search for words. I love to find interesting quotes that inspire my artwork. Here is an example of two pages from a recent kit created by Christina from 2 Curly Headed Monsters Designs.

I looked for quotes about the color red, copied and pasted the ones I liked onto a page, and returned to the page to see which ones caught my eye a second time. The first one mentioned red hair and since my hair is red, I decided to use it. I also loved the edginess of some of the kit's elements and felt that they fit with the idea of redheads being "dangerous." The second quote about red being "the ultimate cure for sadness" was in line with my own melancholy mood so I selected it as well. You can see

Amanda, from Altered Amanda's Studio, is the other designer I create for. Many of her kits cause me to really reflect on my own life. Some of them are rich with visuals, while others leave more room for interpretation. Last week I worked with a kit called Lessons Learned. It was wide open for interpretation so I visited some quotes I had collected. The three quotes I shared were credited to Mother Teresa and each one tied in with my experiences that week.

For the second layout, I wrote my own journal entry. You can see Altered Amanda's Studio kits here.

It doesn't seem to matter whether I use someone else's words or my own. Reading what others have said on a topic does help to inspire me at times, but I also find it valuable to take an idea and translate it into words and images in my art journal. Here are some gold stars just for you!

This week we would love to see you use words in your art. It's up to you how you use them. Directions for participation are on the right sidebar. Please post your work on your blog and link up below no later than Sunday, January 19, 2015.